Referring to FIG. 1A, a typical IC (Integrated Circuit) package 102 includes a plurality of leads for coupling nodes of an IC die within the IC package 102 to a system external to the IC package 102. FIG. 1A shows a bottom view of the IC package 102, and each side of the IC package 102 includes a row of a plurality of leads.
A first side 104 of the IC package 102 includes a row of a first lead 106, a second lead 108, and a third lead 110. A second side 112 of the IC package 102 includes a row of a fourth lead 114, a fifth lead 116, and a sixth lead 118. A third side 120 of the IC package 102 includes a row of a seventh lead 122, an eighth lead 124, and a ninth lead 126. A fourth side 128 of the IC package 102 includes a row of a tenth lead 130, an eleventh lead 132, and a twelfth lead 134. A typical IC package includes more numerous leads to a side of the IC package. However, three leads to a side of the IC package 102 are shown in FIG. 1A for clarity of illustration.
Referring to FIG. 1B, a side view of the first side 104 of the IC package 102 of FIG. 1A is shown. The side view of the first side 104 of the IC package 102 in FIG. 1B also shows a side view of the fourth lead 114 on the second side 112 of the IC package 102 and a side view of the twelfth lead 134 on the fourth side 128 of the IC package 102. Any two adjacent leads of the row of plurality of leads are separated from each other by a predetermined separation distance.
Referring to FIG. 2, the second lead 108 is bent toward the first lead 106. A lead of an IC package 102 may be significantly bent beyond a tolerance specification. During inspection of the IC package 102 in the prior art, an operator visually inspects the leads of the IC package 102 to determine whether any lead of the IC package 102 is significantly bent beyond the tolerance specification. However, such visual inspection by a human operator is unreliable and slows down the production of IC packages. A machine vision system may be used for inspection of the leads of the IC package 102. However, such a machine vision system is relatively costly.
Thus, a mechanism is desired for automatically detecting when any lead of an integrated circuit package is significantly bent beyond the tolerance specification in an effective and economical manner.